It’s not long since I reviewed another fishing-based online slot from Inspired Gaming named Big Fishing Fortune, and when I first loaded this game up, my initial reaction was one of confusion – the two games are remarkably similar. Catch of the Day has obviously taken inspiration from the hugely popular Fishin’ Frenzy series of online slots, but the same was true of Big Fishing Fortune – why Inspired felt the need to create two of these games is anybody’s guess! Like its sister slot, Catch of the Day is based on ten fixed pay lines, has a slightly below-average RTP of 95.05%, and a somewhat obfuscated jackpot. There’s a definite hard limit of €250,000 per round mentioned in the paytable, which some casino sites seem to have misinterpreted as a 250,000x prize. I found a more reasonable estimate of 5,000x, the total bet stated in several places on the web, but I’m unsure how you would even get there, considering that the biggest payout on the paytable is 500x for five scatters.
Many other aspects of this machine look identical to Big Fishing Fortune – the most valuable regular symbol on the paytable, for example, has a maximum payout of 200x the total bet, and all five reels include a mixture of fish money symbols with cash prizes that can only be collected during the bonus round. That bonus round is a little different this time around, however – the number of free spins is determined directly by the number of triggering scatter symbols rather than a “big catch” in this game, with three, four, or five scatters awarding 10, 15, or 20 free spins respectively. The only other special feature worthy of note looks to be a pie gamble that can be configured to activate automatically on wins of 5x or greater.
Us slots fans must be a peculiar bunch considering just how many of these fishing-themed slots exist on the market today – somebody is playing them a lot, that’s for sure. I just can’t imagine who that might be! For those keen to take a look, we have a Catch of the Day demo slot available to play below.
| Provider | Inspired Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 10 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 30 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 95.05% |
| Our Rating | 6.9 |
Catch Of The Day Casino Bonuses
Catch Of The Day Demo
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Catch Of The Day Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I remember the first time I played a Fishin’ Frenzy game – I was playing some other game at an online casino when a mate mentioned that he had played the fishing-themed slot at the local bookmaker’s shop earlier that day and recommended that I give it a try. The game confused me – it had a feature which only activated when a bell sounded, but that sound was not tied to the appearance of any particular symbol or other event taking place in the game. I’m unsure today if that was a weird version of Fishin’ Frenzy or if I just haven’t played the original in such a long time that I can’t recall the exact details, but I definitely was not overly impressed, and to this day, haven’t quite figured out the reason for the popularity of these games. Catch of the Day isn’t a particularly great-looking game, making Inspired’s decision to create a clone a dubious one at best – why would anybody choose to play this game over the original?
Again, perhaps I am worrying about the details a little too much – the trophy symbol has a payout of 200x the total bet for a complete payline of five of a kind, which is a decent base game hit for any online slot. The life preserver’s return of 100x for all five symbols is once again reasonable, and the 50x payout for the boot and anchor complete a respectable set of high-paying symbols. Any combination of five fish symbols will pay 20x the total bet – you can ignore the cash values shown during the base game – and that just leaves us with the five royal symbols, all of which share equal returns of 10x the total bet.
As for the betting range, that’s been tweaked significantly compared to Inspired’s other fishing-themed game – this time, we get minimum/maximum permitted wagers of €0.10 and €30.00 per spin, respectively, which should be enough to satisfy most players.
Base Game & Modifiers
The basic gameplay of Catch of the Day feels as if it may have been lifted directly from a game published two decades ago – that’s not to say that simple, straightforward slots are necessarily a bad thing, but there certainly isn’t much to it. You get five reels of three rows each, ten fixed paylines, and a minimum of three matching symbols required to score yourself a win, except for the trophy, which has a token payout for two symbols as well.
Catch Of The Day Slot Bonus Features
A curious thing about many of these fishing-themed slots is that they all include cash prizes that can only be won during their bonus rounds. That would be fine, except that the cash prizes are still displayed during the base game too – I can’t wrap my head around the reasoning behind this. Nevertheless, hitting three scatter symbols will award you 10 free spins, increasing to 15 or 20 for four or five scatter symbols, respectively.
Free Spins Feature
This is the only part of the game where the wild fisherman will appear, and he’s important because he acts as the only means of collecting the values associated with the fish money symbols. Fish money symbols can pay 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, or 50x the total bet, whereas the fisherman acts as a scatter and pays up to 500x the total bet for all five symbols.
Theoretically, you could hit five fishermen with 10 50x fish symbols for a total of 1000x your bet from a single spin. Sticking to the highly theoretical line here, you may be able to hit such a combination more than once in a single feature. Indeed, something like that would be entirely necessary if you were to get close to the 5,000x jackpot cap I have seen published elsewhere. You certainly aren’t going to be winning 250,000x your bet as Paddy Power claims on their website!
Pros
- Big payouts on the paytable of up to 200x your total bet.
- The 500x payout for five wilds is nice to see, even if it's only available in the bonus round.
- If Fishin’ Frenzy isn’t available at the site you want to play at, this makes a perfect drop-in replacement.
Cons
- Nothing unique or innovative to see anywhere within the game.
- The presentation and graphics fall well short of Inspired’s usual quality.
- No definitive answer for what the maximum jackpot could be.
Final Thoughts
There are only minor differences between this game and Big Fishing Fortune – Inspired’s other fishing-themed slot – but if you are into these games, I guess there’s no reason not to try both and find your favourite. Personally, I’ve already had enough of this game in its pre-existing forms, but if that doesn’t apply to you, then there could be fun to be found here.
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